NASA’s latest fleet with far-reaching reconnaissance ideas includes projects that could one day return samples from Saturn’s moon Titan, allows astronauts to experience artificial gravity in space, or send astonishing amounts of planetary data back to Earth.
The agency has the latest recipients of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which explores ideas for exploring the universe in the early stages. Although many of these projects may be decades from launch, NASA and related groups may use the ideas in future applications.
This year’s round offers Phase I recipients up to $ 125,000 each for preliminary research. Those who complete their requirements can apply for a Phase II grant after nine months. The program typically offers up to $ 500,000 each for Phase II recipients and $ 2 million each for Phase III.
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“There are an overwhelming number of new entrants to the program this year,” said Jason Derleth, NIAC program manager. statement from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “All two researchers selected for Phase I awards are first NIAC award recipients, showing that NASA’s early opportunities continue to engage creative thinkers from across the country.”
NIAC was founded in 2011 following a predecessor program called NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.
Below is the complete list of 2021 Phase I recipients; the short descriptions are taken directly from each project individual experiment pages on the NIAC website.
Regolith Adaptive Modification System (RAMs) to support early extraterrestrial planetary landings (and operations): Sarbajit Banerjee of Texas A & M Engineering Experiment Station’s project will study selective reinforcement and fusion of lunar surface material.
Uranus explored by SCATTER: Sustained ChipSat / CubeSat activity through electromagnetic radiation: Sigrid Close of the Stanford University project will study the ability of a parent spacecraft to transmit power and remotely manipulate a small probe spacecraft using a laser transducer.
Ablative arc mining for use of resources in situ: Amelia Greig of the University of Texas, the El Paso project will include the extraction and collection of water in parallel with as many other local materials as possible. When surface material is blown off using electric arcs, free ionized particles are sorted by mass into groups of matter and transported to a relevant collector by electromagnetic fields.
Mileage-scale space structures from a single launch: Zachary Manchester of Carnegie Mellon University’s project addresses the challenge of producing artificial gravity close to 1g [Earth’s gravity] for astronauts, a kilometer-scale structure is required. It will take advantage of the recent advances in mechanical metamaterials to design lightweight deployable structures with unprecedented expansion ratios.
PEDALS: Passively expanding dipole range for lunar sound: Patrick McGarey of JPL’s project will include a series of discrete dipoles that, through unique combinations and the coupling of short dipoles into larger ones, increase the effective resolution of the lunar surface by enabling variable frequencies and depths.
Autonomous robot demonstration for deep drilling (ARD3): Quinn Morley of Planet Enterprises’ project will test an autonomous drilling system using a Perseverance type rover as a drilling rig. The drilling strategy is not based on cables; instead, independent robots drive up and down the borehole autonomously. These robots have the nickname “borebots”.
Extra-object interceptor and sample return powered by compact, ultra-dense radio-isotope batteries: Christopher Morrison of UltraSafe Nuclear Corp. – Space’s project will study a compact radio isotope electric propulsion spacecraft designed by a new rechargeable atomic battery. A spacecraft powered by this technology can overtake an outdoor solar object, collect a monster, and return to Earth within a ten-year period.
Atomic Planar Power for Lightweight Exploration (APPLE): Joseph Nemanick of The Aerospace Corp. will study an architecture for deep solar system missions on fast-moving, low-mass space platforms. The vehicle has a long-lasting, rechargeable and modular power system with a long power, with solar power drive.
A titanium sample return using in situ propellants: Steven Oleson of the NASA Glenn Research Center’s project will investigate a proposed Titan sample return mission using volatile propellants available on the surface.
ReachBot: small robot for large mobile manipulation tasks in Mars cave environments: Marco Pavone of the Stanford University project will test a long-range crawling and anchoring robot, which re-uses the expandable trees for mobile manipulation, to explore and taste difficult terrain on planetary bodies, with the main focus on March exploration.
FarView – an in situ Lunar Far Side Radio Observatory: Ronald Polidan of Lunar Resources, Inc. ‘s project will be an end-to-end system-level study of how to build a very large low-frequency radio observatory, “FarView”, on the lunar side using lunar regolith material.
FLOAT – Flexible levitation on a track: Ethan Schaler of JPL’s project will study the first lunar railway system that provides reliable, autonomous and efficient cargo load on the moon. Use is made of magnetic robots without power moving across a three-layer flexible film web.
SWIMMING – Sensing with independent micro-swimmers: Ethan Schaler of JPL’s project will dramatically expand the capabilities of robotic missions with ocean access to Europe underground and increase their likelihood of finding evidence of habitability, biomarkers or life.
Make land for spatial habitats by sowing asteroids with fungi: Jane Shevtsov of Trans Astronautica Corp. ‘s project will create soil rich in carbon asteroid material, use fungi to physically degrade the material and chemically degrade toxic substances.
Light bends: Charles Taylor of the NASA Langley Research Center’s project will use Cassegrain telescope optics as the primary way to capture, concentrate and focus sunlight. A second major innovation is the use of a Fresnel lens to scatter this light for distribution to multiple end users at distances of a mile or more, without significant losses.
Solar system Pony Express: Joshua Vander Hook of JPL’s project will study a global, multispectral, high-resolution surveyor supported by regular visits from a cycling satellite network to retrieve petabits of data for transportation to Earth.
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